Advice For Running Safely In The Snow

Photo courtesy of 09taveler creative commons license

I just ran into an interesting article about running in the snow (something we all know I don’t do ;-)) but I thought I would share it anyway, it was writen by Coach Joe and published here.
Here is a small excerpt

Snowy weather, especially in places that don’t get a lot of snow, produces driving conditions and driver behavior that are less than desirable. A car can simply spin-out or lose control without notice on snow or ice, so as a runner, you need to keep on your guard at all times. Here are a few things that can help in dealing with cars:

• Position yourself facing traffic if possible and safe to do so. In most areas, runners are legally required to run facing traffic if there are no sidewalks along the road and in the case of snowy weather, you want to be positioned to see cars coming toward you so that you can take action if they appear to be losing control.

•  Get as far from the cars as is practical. You’ll need to balance your safety with the ability to put yourself on hard-packed snow, but stay as far to the side of the road as you can.

• Pull over and stop if a car looks shaky. It’s not hard to spot a driver that it having trouble with driving in the snow. When you see a driver that looks like he or she might be nervous about your presence at the side of the road, just take a few steps off of the road into the snow, stop and wait for them to pass.